


All We Are Is Dust In The Wind

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, Getting Together, Identity Reveal, Light Angst, Multi, Scooby Doo References, Secret Identity, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25116034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Bucky gets some poems anonymously published in the college's newspaper. The bad news is that they're all love poems about his best friends, who are already dating, and Tony is determined to find out who the author is.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 78
Collections: Marvel Polyship Bingo 2020, StarkBucksBingo2020





	All We Are Is Dust In The Wind

**Author's Note:**

> B5-Hot on Your Heels (starkbucks bingo), O2-Dust (marvel polyship bingo)

"Don't you think you're starting to obsess about this, Tony?" Bucky tried, but he knew that it likely wasn't going to do any good. 

"I _swear_ this is about me and Natasha. I am right to obsess because it's _about me_." 

"You don't know that it's about you," he said. As the author of the poems though, he knew that they were indeed about Tony and Natasha. It's not his fault that he wrote third rate love poems about being in love with two of his friends-- that happened to be dating each other-- and that Steve found the poems, thought they were good, thought that Bucky had agreed to let him submit them to the college's newspaper, and it was _certainly_ not his fault that Natasha had left her copy lying around and Tony had decided to read something not about math or science for a change. 

"It is!" Tony declared. "And I have proof." 

"How the hell do you have proof? It doesn't list the author." The only saving grace of this whole debacle, because unfortunately, it was quite obvious that it was about Tony and Natasha. Tony was too unique for it to be about anyone else, and with all the different newspaper clippings laid out in front of him, he had a good enough description to be certain. And since Bucky had mentioned a girlfriend in relation to the man-- as well as a boyfriend in relation to the woman-- it was pretty damn obvious. He'd thought that he'd be safe though, since Natasha didn't like poetry and Tony _usually_ didn't bother with anything like this. The only one in their group that read poetry other than Bucky was Steve, and since all of this was Steve's fault in the first place, he hadn't thought to worry about it. 

"I am admired far and wide, and Natasha is one of the most beautiful people on the planet, so I don't need to know the author to know that it's about us. We probably don't even know her personally. I bet she's a lurker." 

"A lurker?" Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. Bright side: Tony thought a woman wrote these poems, so he wasn't under the microscope. 

Tony waved a hand carelessly. "Someone that watches without being a stalker. It's not quite as creepy as it could be since stalkers like, peer through my window and go through garbage and shit. It's a really good thing I'm ace otherwise I'd have to find some way of disposing of condoms where they couldn't find, and that sounds kind of disgusting." 'Kind of' was certainly one way of saying it. Revolting was another. "Do you think this one's by her?" Tony asked, pulling one cut-out poem closer. "It's not about me or Natasha, but the style's similar." 

"If it's not about you, why do you care if it's the same author?" 

"Because it's another clue." 

"What, are you Scooby Doo now?" 

"If I was anyone on the gang, it would be Daphne." 

"Would it?" Bucky asked, frowning. He was thinking more along the lines of Tony being Fred and Natasha being the one who was Daphne. 

"We both have impeccable fashion sense," was all Tony had to say on the subject before he was back on the topic of the poems and the mystery author. 

When Natasha got home, Bucky hoped that she would take his mind off the poems. Instead, she joined him on the floor, and it was worse now, because Natasha was getting a degree in creative writing and she knew how to analyze them. If she recognized Bucky's style, he was a dead man. 

"Not going to help us, Bucky?" she asked, looking up at him and raising an eyebrow. 

"You kidding? I still think you're seeing ghosts where there aren't any." 

"Is that the joke of the day? Scooby Doo?" 

"It can be if it'll get you to stop." 

"Not a chance, Shaggy." 

"I'm Shaggy?" 

Natasha nodded, turning her attention back to the poems. "I believe it. Fond of animals, always eating..." 

"You think I'm a coward?" 

"You're reading too much into this," Tony said. "Mostly I meant that you have long, unkempt hair." 

Bucky flipped him off. 

"I'm getting hungry," Natasha said to the room. "Will you order pizza?" She didn't have to say Bucky's name for him to know that she was talking to him. 

"Is it an extra cheese day or a three meat day?" 

"Three meat." 

"As you wish," Bucky said with a heavy sigh, having to pry himself off the couch that he'd basically molded into while watching them work on this instead of any of their three class's worth of homework. 

* * *

It was late when Bucky realized he was tired, so Natasha and Tony invited him to stay the night. Their apartment was small, but their bed was big; big enough to comfortably fit three people that all liked to cuddle in lieu of using blankets while sleeping. It was a damn nice set up for Bucky considering that Clint was awake at nights and rarely had a concept of how loud he was being. And also he wasn't dating Natasha or Tony but they still let him do this. Also that Steve didn't like it when Bucky "smother hugged" him-- Steve's words, not his. It let Bucky get his weekly dose of physical contact without feeling like he was bothering someone. 

There was only one bad part to this, and it was that sometimes Bucky woke up in the middle of the night. Instead of being able to slide right out and grab some water, he had to figure out if it was worth it to get up, and when the answer was inevitably yes, he had to try and wriggle his way out without waking either of them. 

He managed to get out and pad to the kitchen, but it wasn't without waking anyone. Not that he noticed that until after he finished his first glass and turned to get a second. 

Natasha was leaning tiredly against the counter, eyes narrowed to slits to try and avoid the light over the stove that he'd turned on. 

Bucky held the once again full glass out to her in offering. 

She took a sip, then handed it back. "Are you going to tell Tony you wrote the poems?" she asked, voice croaking from sleep. 

Bucky froze. He was too tired to properly pretend like he didn't know what she was talking about, and he hadn't prepared to be confronted with this. "How did you know?" 

"'All we are is dust in the wind, but I would be ash for a moment of your time, my dears'," Natasha quoted. "You shouldn't have quoted one of your favorite songs." 

Bucky let out a shaky breath. "Look, it's poetry, I didn't mean-" He had to stop talking when she covered his mouth with her hand. 

She dropped it slowly, then yawned so wide it looked like she was about to unhinge her jaw. "Can we talk in the morning?" 

"I can go home," Bucky offered quietly. 

Natasha snorted, then grabbed his arm and started dragging him to their room. "'m tired. So we're talking in the morning." 

"If you're going to kill me, you could do it now," he muttered, but he didn't dig his feet in. 

"You're so fucking paranoid. I'm tired, and I'm not going to wake Tony up for something that can wait." 

"Still sounds like a death sentence," he insisted. 

"Depends on how you think dating two people is going to end." 

"What?" 

"That's what you want, right?" she whispered, talking quieter now that they were back in the bedroom and didn't want to wake Tony. 

"Yes, but-" 

"But nothing. That's what me and Tony want too. Or did you really think we let all our friends sleep in the bed with us?" 

"I thought Clint was the only one exiled to the couch," he admitted. Tony was a pretty cuddly person for his friends. Bucky honestly wouldn't have been surprised if Tony had spent his entire time living with Rhodey staying in the other's bed. 

"Just go to sleep," she said. He couldn't see it, but he was sure Natasha was shaking her head. "You can ask Tony in the morning if you don't believe me." 

"I will." 

She tightened her grip when he started to move away to climb into bed, so he paused. "I didn't tell him you wrote the poems when I figured it out. You might want to mention that first, to make it easier."


End file.
